Comments for Grey Lady Down: The Wreck Of The DSM at http://ts-si.org , comment 1 to 1 out of 1 comments http://ts-si.org Thu, 20 Nov 2008 11:36:32 +0100 FeedCreator 1.7.3 http://ts-si.org/looking-glass/3348-grey-lady-down-the-wreck-of-the-dsm.html#comment-873 Harry Benjamin Syndrome (HBS), formerly known as transsexualism, is not a mental disorder. It is not a mental anything. Our knowledge of HBS continues to grow, supported by volumes of scientific reports that indicate HBS is a physical brain anomaly whereby the brain develops as one sex, the body as its opposite. Yet its treatment remains trapped in the earlier era of the DSM, its patients subject to all the humiliation and disparity of being branded 'disordered', or whatever. Behavior, defined as 'The actions or reactions of a person or animal in response to external or internal stimuli' has been the defining criteria against which to assign the 'mental' tag...after all, people who behave in concordance with their inner convictions (i.e. knowledge of self driven by brain structure) must have a 'mental' condition. And therein lies the crux of the matter. While, yes, HBS people appear to be driven by internal stimuli (their inner convictions), their non-normative behavior lies not in some internal malfunction but rather by their external reality - their bodies. It is their bodies that are wrong, not their minds. (Note to caregivers and doctors: Please re-read the above. Get it?) If there are concerns about behavior in HBS individuals, it surely stems from their abhorration of their bodies and the cumulative disparity of living with such a dichotomy. It has nothing to do with their mental faculties or the nature of their mental reality. HBS, or transsexualism, needs to be removed entirely from the DSM. It is a biological condition resulting in an adverse physical manifestion, not some mumbo-jumbo mental disorder. (Note to DSM committee members: Please feel free to change the designation from 'transsexualism' to 'transgenderism', after all transgenderism does probably belong there, but leave transsexualism out!) It will be a great day when the medical community finally figures all this out and moves to accept the challenge of ownership for HBS. Until then, the DSM fight continues and needs to be challenged at every step of the way. Kudos to TS-Si for such an informative discourse. - Kelly Sun, 20 Jul 2008 16:54:07 +0100